The wrong approach

Govt attitude to e-commerce is harsh

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has been forced to clarify certain remarks he made at the end of last week at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi. Mr Goyal had said there, in the context of Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos’ visit to India, that the online retailer was not doing India any favour by investing a further $1 billion. Mr Goyal’s point was that, if Amazon was making a billion-dollar loss every year, a cash infusion of a further billion dollars was no particular privilege for India. The minister subsequently clarified his point, saying that